The fourth WC has yet to be decided, it's between Niemeyer and Agostinelli. Hopefully TC will go with the latter.

Quote:

Who gets the remaining wild card is the subject of some intense discussion. It comes down to veteran Frederic Niemeyer, 33 and ranked No. 519, or Bruno Agostinelli, 22, and the hero of Canada’s recent Davis Cup win over Peru in Lima. Agostinelli, who has just finished his final year of eligibility at the University of Kentucky, won the fifth and deciding match, saving Canada from a trip to Uruguay right after the U.S. Open in September in order to preserve its spot in American Zone Group I action for 2010.

Portugal only has one tournament per season, it's a much bigger tennis country than Canada and only invites one Portuguese per year, even though it's a clay MM tournament!

Giving a WC to some Canadian who won't win more than six games in his match instead of giving it to Ferrero is pure ridiculous!

Just because a tournament in Portugal gives only one home WC is no reason for the Rogers Cup to do it. Giving even one WC to a foreign player hasn't been common over the last several years, two would be extremely unlikely, unless it was someone on the same level of interest from casual fans as Safin/Hewitt.

Personally, I'd be pretty ticked off if Tennis Canada gave the fourth WC to a guy like Ferrero instead of to a Canadian, even though the Canadian would have much weaker odds of winning a match. The tournament is run by Canadian tennis, and paid for by the interest and attendance of Canadian fans and sponsors. So it makes perfect sense to me that the WC's should benefit Canadian tennis as well

If it's Bruno, it's a chance to give a (hopefully) rising star some well-needed experience. If it's Fred, it'll be a an opportunity to give a guy who was the #1 Canadian for a fair period of time, and a Davis Cup stalwart for a decade, a proper send-off at a big event. Either seems to me a much more compelling story from a Canadian perspective than Ferrero playing would be.

From an international perspective, you're right, fans from other countries probably would find one (or even zero) Canadians better. But that's not what WCs are for, in my mind.

Still no word on whether new dad Roger Federer will make it to Montreal.

And now, in a television interview broadcast Tuesday night, Rafael Nadal sounds like he's wavering on whether he'll come to defend his Rogers Cup title.

His people have told tournament director Eugene Lapierre he's coming. His hotel reservations are confirmed.

Here's what he announced on his web site about it two weeks ago:

"The event in Montreal is important and I expect to be there fit to play. Until then I need to continue to work on my recovery and practice well."

Now, he sounds dodgy about it. Maybe he's practicing and it's not feeling great. Maybe he's concerned that the Rogers Cup is 10 days away, and he still hasn't pushed it beyond "light and easy with Uncle Toni." Maybe he got some news with all those tests that has him concerned. Or maybe he's just being cautious.

"Good, the truth is that I feel good. But also, I have to wait and see how I continue to recover because I’ve only been back training for a week and a half and you always feel a bit better anemically. You start with lots of hope, but again, the real test would be to see how I go when I really push my knees and I think that is likely to happen in the upcoming days. So I hope it’s all good."

"What happened was that I was in a lot of pain for a while, when I came back from Miami and I was training in Manacor, I started to feel a strong pain, especially in my right knee. It was a different kind of pain (to what I’ve experienced before), so I took off the bandages in my knees, ... and everyone thought that it was because I felt great, but the problem was that it didn’t hurt there anymore, now it hurt in the superior end of the knee cap. And well, the bandages weren’t helping me at all and that’s when it al started to get worse, little by little.”

He says, and this is no surprise, that he should have blown off the Masters 1000 event in Madrid (the knees were painful, he hated the altitude, he needed a week off, and he was cranky the entire time). He says he played on anti-inflammatories, but still had too much pain.

Now here's the part that concerns Montreal fans.

He says his "dream" is to come back in Montreal (which is coming up quickly):

"I would like to come back in Montreal in a week and a half. I (will) have to force the knees and just see how far I can go. ... My main objective is not to regain the number one ranking. My main goal is to be well and happy to be playing tennis. ... I’m mentally ready to return now!"

On the wildcard topic, it onlt makes sense for tennis canada to give the wildcard to a canadian...who does the us open organizers give their wildcards too? estonians? no, americans and so do the rest of the grand slams...sometimes they do a trade but they only do that to benefit their players because it gives them a chance to compete and get experiance, and helps them get needed ranking points(if they do well) to help their ranking climb...that's why I would give the wildcard to agosnelli instead of neimeyer...although it would be a good farewell...a wildcard to the main draw would mean so much for agosnelli who needs experiance and shows he can do well under pressure(proven in davis cup). This wildcard would do so much to help him move up the rankings much quicker....they already have a wildcard given to an international...if ferrero wanted to compete he should have aquired a better ranking...and it doesn't matter what portugal does..that's their choice and I would say not a very good one(I like to rant too)